so ive been doing drone work on the side for about two years now, mostly real estate and the occasional construction progress shoot, and im starting to wonder if theres actually a path to doing this full time. i have my part 107 and a decent kit, mavic 3 pro plus an inspire 2 for when clients want something more serious looking i guess.

the thing is my day job pays well and leaving it feels like a huge risk but im kinda miserable there and the drone stuff genuinely makes me happy. i know that sounds cliche. ive heard people say the market is saturated and then ive also heard people say theres tons of work if you specialize. does anyone here actually freelance full time and if so what niches ended up being the bread and butter for you? real estate feels like a race to the bottom on pricing lately at least in my area.

not really sure what im asking exactly, just want to hear from people who made the jump i guess

made the jump about three years ago and honestly the first year was rough not gonna lie. real estate was my starting point too and yeah the pricing pressure is real, you get undercut constantly by people with phantoms who just got their cert and are charging like $150 for a full shoot. what saved me was pivoting hard into infrastructure inspection work - cell towers, power lines, that kind of thing. pays way better, requires actual skill and a bit of extra training, and clients dont really shop on price the same way because they need someone reliable. took me a while to break into it but once you get one good client in that space word travels.

the thing people dont tell you is that the flying is maybe 30% of the job. the rest is editing, client emails, chasing invoices, redoing shots because someone changed their mind. if youre ok with that side of it then yeah it can work. if you hate admin stuff it gets old fast.

im kind of in the same boat as you actually so ill be watching this thread. ive been picking up jobs through some of the drone marketplace apps but the rates on those are just depressing, feels like youre working for the platform more than yourself. curious if anyone has had luck building direct client relationships vs relying on those platforms